1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an optical disc player, and more particularly to an optical disc player capable of performing the backward and forward feeding operation of a tray by driving a feeding motor for controlling the feeding operation of an optical pickup in the optical disc player employing a front loading system.
2. Description of the Prior Art
An optical disc player functions by loading a disc which is capable of an optical recording onto a turntable to record a video and/or an audio signal on the disc or to reproduce the video and/or audio signal recorded on the disc. There are several systems for loading/unloading the disc into such an optical disc player, which are largely classified into a front loading system where the disc is loaded horizontally with respect to the front plane of the housing of the player and a top loading system where the disc is loaded by opening/closing an upper door of the player.
The most widely utilized system is the front loading system in which a tray carrying the disc thereon moves horizontally into the player, and then the disc is perpendicularly loaded onto the turntable.
The tray adopted to the optical disc player of the front loading system is transferred to the front of a player main body by means of a loading motor to carry the disc thereon, and the tray is transferred into the interior of the player main body to permit the disc to be mounted onto the turntable.
In contrast to a portable optical disc player of the top loading system, the optical disc player of the front loading system such as a compact disc player and a laser disc player must be equipped with the loading motor which reciprocates backward and forward with respect to the player main body for seating the disc on the turntable installed inside the player main body and for driving the tray for ejecting the disc from the turntable, in addition to being equipped with a spindle motor which rotates the disc seated on the turntable by a predetermined rpm, and to being equipped with a feeding motor which is installed to a deck plate underlying the turntable for driving an optical pickup to read out information recorded on the disc while reciprocating backward and forward in a radius direction of the disc when the disc seated on the turntable is rotated by the driving of the spindle motor.
Considerable studies have been continuously made for simplifying the complicated structure of the optical disc player to direct lightweight and thinned-down products.
For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,434,839 issued to Choi, discloses a disc loading apparatus for performing the horizontal and vertical operation of a disc tray by means of a single motor during the loading of a disc. Also, U.S. Pat. No. 5,218,593 issued to Kaneo et al., discloses a disc loading apparatus for performing the up and down movement of a deck member and the backward and forward operation of a tray by using a single motor.
Furthermore, U.S. Pat. No. 5,084,854 issued to Ikedo et al., discloses an apparatus for simplifying motors which have been separately required for performing a disc loading mechanism that draws a disc into a player to seat the disc on the upper portion of a turntable and for maintaining an optical axis of a pickup in a perpendicular position with respect to a disc surface. U.S. Pat. No. 5,084,854 thereby attains these objects with a single motor.
Despite the number of endeavors, in the conventional optical disc player and especially in a front loading system, the separate installation of the loading motor for performing the backward and forward feeding operation of the tray and the feeding motor for controlling the feeding operation of the optical pickup demands separate transmission mechanisms added to the loading motor and feeding motor for supplying the motive power from respective motors to the tray and the optical pickup. Accordingly, the overall structure becomes complicated. Therefore, the assembling time is lengthened and productivity is defraded. Furthermore, the conventional art is disadvantageous in that the increased number of components raises cost of the product and makes the product bulky and heavy, to adversely affect the realization of the light weight and thinness.